This grandfatherly-looking guy may have been the best entertainer of all of those I saw this week, which is saying one hell of a lot. Gerry Marsden, who will be 66 years old next month, is best known as being the "Gerry" of one the earliest of the British Invasion bands, Gerry & the Pacemakers. Of course, the other band members aren't original at all; they are way too young, and Marsden's brother, who played drums in the original group, died some years ago. The original band was the second one signed up by the legendary Brian Epstein (the first, of course, was the Beatles). Marsden considered John Lennon his best friend.
I wasn't going to go anywhere tonight, but I changed my mind and went to Sparks for the first time for this event this year. There was a small crowd of people of the baby boom generation or a bit older, and I thought to myself, my God, nobody even remembers Gerry & the Pacemakers, and everybody will be watching the cruise in Sparks instead of listening to the music. But when Marsden and the band came on, well, things changed. That guy rocked his ass off and could do it better than people 1/3 his age. He was tremendous. More and more people came around to listen to him and the band.
I decided for the hell of it I would bring the camcorder and get a few of the songs. I wasn't worried about videotaping because it is okay to videotape the free concerts at Hot August Nights, but I don't have a battery which lasts more than an hour anyway to record all of the shows. I did get a few tunes and didn't record some I should have.
This is what Marsden looked like in his heyday around 1963-1966. He is with singer Cilla Black:
And here is another picture of him tonight:
I'll post a couple of video clips of the performance.
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